BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 51

Serge J eanneau
+52 55 9138 0294
serge.jeanneau@bis.org
Camilo E Tovar
+52 55 9138 0293
camilo.tovar@bis.org

Domestic bond markets in Latin America:
achievements and challenges
1

Domestic bond markets in Latin America have expanded significantly over the past few
years. This development should help reduce the regions historical dependence on
external financing. Although much progress has been made, vulnerabilities associated
with refinancing risk remain and secondary markets still suffer from low liquidity.
JEL classification: E440, F340, G150, G180, H630, O160.
Domestic bond markets have remained underdeveloped for much of Latin
Americas modern history owing to a number of policy and structural
impediments. These included a poor record of macroeconomic management;
the absence of a deep and diversified investor base; regulatory restrictions that
hampered the development of primary and secondary market activity; and the
lack of an adequate infrastructure for the issuance of private sector debt
securities. The resulting structure of domestic government and private sector
debt, which was heavily biased towards short-term and/or dollar-indexed
liabilities, contributed to a worsening of the financial crises in the region during
the 1990s and early 2000s.
In recent years, however, domestic bond markets have constituted a
growing source of financing for Latin American economies and of portfolio
allocation for global investors (Graph 1). This has called into question the view
that countries in the region cannot borrow in local currency at longer maturities,
sometimes referred to as the original sin hypothesis. The expansion of these
markets has reflected a conscious effort by the authorities of most countries to
reduce their vulnerability to adverse external shocks. In this context, a key
objective has been the strengthening of demand conditions for domestic debt.
This has been accomplished inter alia through a transition to more stable
macroeconomic policies; a move to privately funded and managed pension
systems; and the removal of restrictions on foreign investment. Policy
initiatives have also been taken on the supply side, including a gradual shift of

1
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
those of the BIS. We thank Claudio Borio, Andrew Filardo, Mr Gudmundsson, Gregor
Heinrich, Frank Packer and Agustn Villar for their comments, and Thomas J ans, Denis Ptre,
Gert Schnabel and J huvesh Sobrun for research assistance. Finally, we are grateful to J os
Oriol Bosch of J PMorgan Chase Mexico for providing us with market-related data.




52 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006
government liabilities to the domestic market; a move to greater predictability
and transparency in debt issuance; and attempts to create liquid benchmark
securities. Such initiatives have been supported by a particularly favourable
external environment, including high commodity prices and their beneficial
effects on internal and external accounts, together with a search for yield on
the part of international investors.
Drawing on statistics collected primarily from national sources, this special
feature argues that considerable progress has been made by countries in the
region in developing their domestic bond markets but that a number of
vulnerabilities persist. The shift from external to domestic debt has helped in
reducing the risk resulting from currency mismatches but it may also have
amplified that arising from maturity mismatches. Investors are still reluctant to
commit their funds at fixed rates for long periods of time, which could expose
borrowers in the region to a significant degree of refinancing risk should
domestic or global financial conditions deteriorate.

Moreover, the investor base
remains narrow, hampering the development of secondary market liquidity.
Main features of domestic fixed income markets
The issuance of domestic securities has expanded rapidly in Latin America
over the past decade (Graph 1).
2
The amount of such securities issued by
central governments and non-financial corporate entities from the seven largest
countries in the region rose by 337% between the end of 1995 and the end of
2005, to $895 billion, equivalent to about 40% of those countries combined

2
Fully consistent cross-country data sets covering Latin American domestic debt markets are
not available. In this special feature, an attempt has been made to assemble comparable data
for the central government and non-financial corporate sectors of Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Domestic issuance comprises the securities issued
on local markets in local or foreign currency. Issuance by financial entities is excluded from
the analysis owing to the limited coverage of available data.
Domestic debt in Latin America
1

Outstanding domestic debt
2, 3
Turnover in local debt instruments
4

0
200
400
600
800
95 00 01 02 03 04 05
Non-financial corporate
Government short-term
Government long-term
0
400
800
1,200
1,600
95 00 01 02 03 04 05
10
22
34
46
58
Value (lhs)
Domestic turnover as a % of
total turnover
5
(rhs)

1
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
2
In billions of US dollars.
3
End of
period.
4
Annual total.
5
Domestic and international transactions.
Sources: EMTA; national authorities. Graph 1



BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 53
GDP. By comparison, the total stock of securities issued by such borrowers in
international debt markets expanded by 65% over the same period, to
$264 billion. As a result of this growth, local fixed income markets have
become the dominant source of funding for the public and private sectors (see
Mathieson et al (2004)).
The current configuration of domestic debt markets in Latin America is
characterised by six main features:
First, domestic debt markets vary widely in size (Table 1). Brazil has by far
the largest, with an outstanding stock of securities of $583 billion at the end of
2005 (market equivalent to 74% of its GDP). Mexicos is the second largest in
absolute terms, with $159 billion in outstanding securities, but it is substantially
smaller than Brazils in terms of GDP (21%). The debt markets of other
countries are much smaller in absolute terms, although some of those markets
are reasonably large relative to GDP.
Second, public sector issuers dominate domestic securities markets
(Graph 1). The central governments of the seven largest countries had issued
marketable liabilities amounting to $808 billion at the end of 2005. By
comparison, corporate bond markets are much less developed. Although
corporate markets may reach up to 4050% of the respective government bond
markets in some countries (eg Chile and Peru), they only total $87 billion in the
region as a whole. Moreover, even in countries where corporate markets are
more developed, activity is restricted to top-tier companies. There has
nevertheless been some progress in developing non-government bond
markets, as illustrated by the expansion of securitisation in the region (see the
box on page 55).



Size of local fixed income markets in Latin America
Of which:
Stock of fixed income securities
Government
short-term
Government
long-term
Non-financial
corporate long-
term
USD billions % of GDP USD billions USD billions USD billions
Argentina 59.7 33 5.1 43.8 10.8
Brazil 583.4 74 226.7 318.2 38.5
Chile 39.8 35 9.2 17.3 13.3
Colombia 38.7 32 0.9 33.2 4.6
Mexico 158.5 21 52.0 89.1 17.4
Peru 7.9 10 1.4 4.3 2.2
Venezuela 7.2 5 3.4 3.7 0.1
Total 895.2 41 298.7 509.6 86.9
Memo:
United States 9,043.5 72 1,474.5 4,873.3 2,695.7
Note: Securities issued by financial institutions are not included in non-financial corporate fixed income securities.
Sources: Fedesarrollo; national authorities; BIS. Table 1
and are
dominated by the
public sector
Domestic debt
markets vary in
size




54 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006
Composition of central government debt in Latin America
In per cent
Brazil Chile Colombia
0
20
40
60
80
100
1995 2000 2005
Fixed

1995 2000 2005
Floating

0
20
40
60
80
100
1996 2000 2005
Inflation-indexed
Mexico
2
Peru Venezuela
0
20
40
60
80
100
1995 2000 2005
Currency-linked

1995 2000 2005

0
20
40
60
80
100
1995 2000 2005
1
The floating rate grouping includes instruments with mixed characteristics.
2
Brems and Cetes are included as floating rate
instruments.
Source: National data. Graph 2


Third, short-term, floating rate and inflation-indexed securities continue to
account for a large share of the outstanding stock of domestic government
securities but there has been a significant change in the composition of
government debt. As shown in Graph 2, currency-linked debt has been phased
out in a number of countries, including Brazil and Mexico, as part of debt
management programmes aimed at reducing vulnerabilities to external shocks.
The main exceptions to this trend are Argentina and Venezuela.
3
In addition,
the relative share of fixed rate debt has increased in most countries. Progress
has been particularly notable in Mexico, where the share of fixed rate securities
amounted to close to 40% at the end of 2005, versus less than 5% in 2000.
Brazil has also made significant advances, with fixed rate bonds now
accounting for close to 30% of marketable liabilities versus 15% in 2000.

3
In Argentina, which is not shown in Graph 2, currency-linked debt has been used to regain
market access since the countrys default.
Debt is biased
towards floating
rate and inflation-
indexed
securities



BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 55
Securitisation in Latin America
Securitisation is a relatively recent phenomenon in Latin America given the extent to which
commercial banks have traditionally dominated the intermediation process. Nevertheless, several
forces have created opportunities for the expansion of structured finance, including the existence of
pressures to improve banks return on assets, the introduction of better adapted legal frameworks
and bankruptcy procedures, a resumption of demand for residential housing and commercial office
space, and institutional investors need for higher-quality assets.
The exact amount of structured transactions is not easy to calculate owing to the lack of
standardised definitions and centralised reporting. The major international rating agencies are the
main source of data on this market segment. According to Moodys, domestic securitised issuance
in Latin America exceeded cross-border business for the second year in a row in 2005: domestic
and cross-border transactions in the region amounted to $12.2 billion and $2.3 billion respectively.
Mexico, Brazil and Argentina accounted for 40%, 32% and 15% of the total volume of domestic
business. Credit-linked obligations, personal and consumer loans, and mortgage-backed securities
(MBSs) represented 33%, 17% and 14% of domestic activity.
Issuance of domestic asset-backed securities in Latin America
In millions of US dollars
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Argentina 1,590 701 130 226 525 1,790
Brazil 184 88 106 1,031 1,652 3,911
Chile 173 220 430 380 293 873
Colombia 55 63 597 510 799 323
Mexico 65 427 414 604 5,444 4,846
Peru 37 94 7 60 163 295
Venezuela
Total 2,104 1,593 1,684 2,811 8,876 12,038
Source: Moodys.
The Mexican domestic market for securitised assets only emerged in 2000, but it is already the
most active in Latin America. Issuance in Mexico amounted to $5.4 billion in 2004 and $4.8 billion in
2005. Much of the activity over the past two years has been due to very large transactions backed
by loans held by the Instituto para la Proteccin al Ahorro Bancario (IPAB), the agency set up in
1999 to manage the debt resulting from the rescue of the banking sector.

So far, aside from the

deals enacted by IPAB, most transactions launched in the Mexican market have securitised bridge
loans for construction and residential mortgages. Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal, a state-owned
development bank that began its operations in late 2001, has worked to develop a cohesive market
for MBSs. As such, it has encouraged issuers to introduce bonds with homogeneous characteristics
and has played an active role as intermediary and liquidity provider in the nascent secondary
market for MBSs.
Brazils was the second most active domestic market in 2005. Issuance reached $3.9 billion,
compared with $1.7 billion in 2004. The popularity of investment vehicles known as Fundos de
Investimentos em Direitos Creditrios was largely responsible for this growing issuance. Such funds
provide companies with an alternative to traditional bank credit by enabling them to securitise their
receivables. Prior to 2003, there was practically no activity in the Brazilian domestic market.
Potential issuers were deterred by the high cost of establishing special purpose vehicles and
investors initial indifference to such securities given the ready availability of high-quality
government paper.
Argentinas market for securitised assets largely dried up in 2001 and 2002 but began to
recover in 2003. Indeed, the Argentine markets expansion was noteworthy in 2005, with issuance
jumping to $1.8 billion from $525 million in 2004.
__________________________________

Transactions for IPAB amounted to $4.1 billion in 2004 and $2.8 billion in 2005.




56 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006

Fourth, there has been a gradual extension of the maturity structure of
government debt in local currency. This has been achieved in part through a
shift from short-term to fixed rate bonds and through a lengthening of the
maturity of fixed rate bonds.
4
The progress made by governments in
lengthening the maturity of their fixed rate debt in local currency is illustrated in
Graph 3, which shows that most countries have been able to increase the
maximum maturity of such debt. Since 2003, Mexico has been able to issue 20-
year bonds and is currently considering issuing 30-year bonds. Recently, Peru
issued 20-year bonds in local currency, a particularly significant development
given the countrys high degree of dollarisation. Colombia, which has been

4
A lengthening of the maturity of the part of debt that is indexed to short-term rates or inflation
has also played a role in some countries.
Maturities of domestic fixed rate local currency government bonds
In years
Argentina
1
Brazil
4
Chile
5
Colombia
6

0
5
10
15
20
01 02 03 04 05
Average
Maximum

01 02 03 04 05
Global issues

01 02 03 04 05
0
5
10
15
20
01 02 03 04 05
Mexico
7
Peru
8
Venezuela
9


0
5
10
15
20
01 02 03 04 05 01 02 03 04 05
0
5
10
15
20
01 02 03 04 05



1
Treasury bills, Lebac and Nobac; excluding the treasury bill issued on 14 February 2002.
2
Weighted average of new issues;
weighted by the amounts issued (excluding global issues).
3
Remaining time to expiration at the end of the year of the issue with the
longest outstanding maturity (excluding global issues); only bonds issued in 2001 or later.
4
LTN, NTN-F and global
issues.
5
Central bank issues.
6
TES and global issues; only national government issues are included.
7
Cetes and government
bonds.
8
Certificates of deposit, treasury bills and government bonds; excluding government bonds issued on 13 October 2004 and
31 J anuary 2005.
9
Treasury bills and government bonds.
Sources: Bloomberg; national data. Graph 3
but its maturity is
lengthening



BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 57
issuing 10-year debt for several years, has introduced 15-year bonds. Chile
has issued securities out to 10 years as part of a process of reducing the
degree of indexation of its government debt market. Brazil has also made some
advances over the last year, in part owing to its 10-year global bond in local
currency.
5
Notwithstanding this progress in the region, the amount of fixed rate
securities issued at longer tenors remains in most cases limited, as reflected by
the relative stability of the weighted average maturity of new issues.
The wider availability of longer-dated bonds is beginning to provide a
useful representation of the term structure of interest rates. Graph 4 plots
available short- and long-term interest rates for countries in the region. The
availability of such rates is helping to make financial markets more complete.
However, as discussed below, the accuracy of information extracted from such
curves remains an issue.

5
See Tovar (2005) for an analysis of recent Latin American global issues in local currencies.
Yield curves of domestic fixed rate local currency government bonds
1

In per cent
Argentina
2
Brazil
3
Chile
4
Colombia
5

0
4
8
12
16
20
24
5 10 15 20
Mar 05
J an 06
ON 5 10 15 20
J un 03
Feb 05
May 06

ON 5 10 15 20
May 03
Feb 05
Mar 06
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
5 10 15 20
May 03
May 05
Mar 06
Mexico
6
Peru
7
Venezuela
8


0
4
8
12
16
20
24
ON 5 10 15 20
Oct 03
Feb 05
Feb 06

5 10 15 20
Dec 04
Mar 05
May 06

0
4
8
12
16
20
24
5 10 15 20
J an 04
Nov 05



1
Remaining maturities in years (ON =overnight).
2
Lebac.
3
Swap rates; long-term; government bonds (NTN-F).
4
Central
bank issues.
5
Zero coupon yield curve.
6
Cetes and government bonds.
7
Government bonds, secondary market.
8
Government bonds (Vebonos), auctions.
Source: National data. Graph 4




58 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006
Fifth, secondary market trading in domestic bonds, a common measure of
liquidity, has expanded in recent years (Graph 1, right-hand panel) but it
remains low relative to mature markets (Table 2). According to the Emerging
Markets Trade Association (EMTA), yearly trading by its member banks in the
domestic instruments of the regions seven largest countries amounted to
$1.3 trillion in 2005, or 1.6 times the outstanding stock of securities. This is a
lower volume of activity than in the more mature markets. Although the data
are not entirely comparable, trading in US Treasury securities amounted to
about $139 trillion in the same year, or 22 times the relevant stock of
securities. Within Latin America, moreover, there is considerable variation in
secondary market activity. While annual turnover in Mexican securities is five
times the outstanding stock, that in Peruvian and Venezuelan is less than the
outstanding stock.
Market liquidity has other important dimensions, such as the tightness of
the market, ie the efficiency with which market participants can trade. As
shown in Table 2, markets for fixed rate government securities do not appear to
be very tight relative to the US market. Indeed, bid-ask spreads, which provide
an idea of the costs incurred by market participants in executing transactions,
are significantly higher in Latin America than in the United States.
6
Again there
are major differences within the region. While in Colombia and Mexico bid-ask
spreads are narrow, they remain quite wide in Argentina, Peru and Venezuela.
Finally, there are currently no actively traded derivatives contracts on
government bond benchmarks in the region but trading in short-term interest
rate or swap contracts is developing rapidly in the major countries. In Brazil,
position-taking in fixed income markets is conducted largely through overnight
futures and swaps rather than cash market assets. This accounts for the sharp
expansion in exchange-traded turnover observed in recent years, with activity
reaching $6.9 trillion in 2005 against $2.6 trillion in 2000.
7
In Mexico, where
exchange-traded activity on fixed income assets does not extend beyond
interbank rates, business amounted to $1 trillion relative to almost nothing in
2000. However, over-the-counter (OTC) currency forwards and swaps are
reported to be increasingly popular in that country. Such instruments are
helping foreign investors and issuers hedge their currency and interest rate
exposures to local currency bonds, thus facilitating their entry into the market
for such securities.
8


6
As a reference, bid-ask spreads in government bond markets in Asia range from 12 basis
points in India, Korea and Singapore to 7 basis points in Indonesia. See J iang and McCauley
(2004).
7
By comparison, turnover on US exchanges reached about $750 trillion in 2005.
8
Local currency debt markets have stimulated derivatives markets in Mexico. Taking advantage
of the demand for highly rated peso paper, foreign financial institutions have issued a number
of international peso-denominated bonds. Since such issuers tend to swap the proceeds of
their issues into other currencies, they have provided a natural counterpart to foreign
investors wishing to hedge peso paper. The Mexican peso is now one of the few emerging
market currencies in which there is active OTC derivatives trading (BIS (2005)).
but trading in
derivatives is
expanding
Secondary market
trading is low



BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 59
Diversification and the sustainability of bond market expansion
The expansion of local bond markets depends in part on the sustainability of
the global process of portfolio diversification. There are good reasons to
believe that the factors supporting the development of bond markets in Latin
America are largely of a permanent nature.
For one, there has been a secular process of integration between mature
and emerging market economies. This includes the growing availability of
low-cost and real-time information about the performance of countries and
firms. The development of electronic trading technologies has also greatly
reduced transaction costs and processing times, further broadening market
participation (Wooldridge et al (2003)).
At the same time, the desirability of local currency debt as an asset class
for international investors has been enhanced by an improvement in policies
and performance in much of the region. Most countries have moved to an
environment of low inflation, high primary fiscal surpluses and favourable
current account positions. Partly as a result of this better environment,
domestic interest rates are increasingly determined by local economic
developments rather than by external factors. In fact, in some countries, such
as Mexico, the local yield curve has largely decoupled from the US yield
curve in recent periods.
Indicators of secondary market liquidity in local government securities markets in
2005
Annual turnover

In billions of
US dollars
As a
percentage of
outstanding
securities
Bid-ask spread
Average size of
transaction related
to bid-ask spread
Argentina 91.5

187 1050 bp on fixed rate and inflation-
indexed bonds
ARS 210m
Brazil 433.0 79 5 bp on fixed rate bonds BRL 1050m
Chile 26.0 98 5 bp on fixed rate bonds
510 bp on inflation-indexed bonds
CLP 100m
UF 100,000
Colombia 45.0 132 35 bp on fixed rate bonds COP 2bn
Mexico 696.7 494 35 bp on fixed rate bonds
515 bp on inflation-indexed bonds
MXN 50100m
MXN 510m
Peru 2.6 46 1020 bp on fixed rate bonds USD 1m
Venezuela 2.8 39 50100 bp on floating rate bonds VEB 2.4bn
Total 1,297.6 160 ... ...
Memo:
United States 138,756.0 2,186 0.81.6 bp on fixed rate bonds USD 25m
Note: Annual turnover data for Latin American countries correspond to secondary market transactions reported by major dealers and
money management firms to EMTA. Annual turnover for the United States is based on daily inter-dealer transactions in US Treasury
securities as reported in the Statistical Supplement to the Federal Reserve Bulletin.
Sources: Sack and Elsasser (2004); Federal Reserve; Central Bank of Venezuela; IMF; Citigroup; EMTA;J PMorgan Chase; BIS.
Table 2
Supporting factors
appear permanent




60 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006

Table 3 presents more general evidence concerning the diversification
benefits offered by Latin American domestic bond markets relative to other
asset classes in global portfolios, at least from the point of view of US dollar-
based investors. Such benefits have been evident given the relatively low
return correlations since J anuary 2003 of Latin American local currency bonds
with: (a) Asian and European emerging market local currency bonds (0.35 and
0.25 respectively); (b) the foreign currency EMBI index (0.56); and (c) 10-year
US Treasury notes (0.24). This last set of correlations has been lower for Latin
American local currency bonds than the corresponding sets for Asian and
European local currency instruments (0.37 in both cases), or the EMBI Global
Diversified index (0.71).
9
The final row of Table 3 indicates that these
diversification benefits did not come at the cost of lower returns over the
sample period: from 2003, Latin American cumulative returns exceeded those
of other emerging markets as local nominal yields declined and currencies
appreciated.
However, such benefits depend in part on whether yield correlations with
other fixed income instruments remain low during periods of stress. There is
some supportive empirical evidence that this may be the case (Bayliss
(2004)). But there are not enough data to test the stability of correlations over
more than a limited time span. An extended episode of significantly less

9
Similar results are reported in Giacomelli and Pianetti (2005).
Domestic bond market correlations and returns
J anuary 2003April 2006
GBI-EM
1

Correlations
Brazil
3
Chile Colombia Mexico Lat Am Asia Europe
EMBI
2

10-yr US
Treasury
bond
Brazil
3
1.00

Chile 0.34 1.00

Colombia 0.52 0.29 1.00

Mexico 0.50 0.56 0.48 1.00

Lat Am 0.78 0.53 0.72 0.89 1.00

Asia 0.33 0.07 0.31 0.31 0.35 1.00

GBI-EM
1

Europe 0.10 0.21 0.21 0.28 0.25 0.42 1.00

EMBI
2
0.52 0.24 0.49 0.50 0.56 0.49 0.49 1.00

Ten-year US Treasury
bond
0.23 0.00 0.22 0.25 0.24 0.37 0.37 0.71 1.00
Returns
2003 23.7 27.7 19.4 7.1 16.7 7.9 14.0 22.3 2.1
2004
24.1 16.3 33.6 5.6 13.8 3.0 28.9 11.7 5.7
2005
36.9 16.2 26.1 21.2 22.8 5.2 3.9 10.3 2.4
2006 (YTD)
14.7 1.6 3.2 0.7 6.1 3.5 1.5 1.5 3.1
Cumulative
142.2 65.8 117.5 34.9 73.2 21.1 55.4 53.1 7.2
1
GBI-EM Broad Diversified.
2
EMBI Global Diversified.
3
Sample starting in May 2003 and ending in April 2006.
Source: Authors calculations based on J PMorgan Chase data. Table 3
Local markets have
offered
diversification
benefits



BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 61
favourable market conditions would be required to arrive at more definite
conclusions.
Currency mismatches and refinancing risks
A key issue regarding the development of local currency bond markets in Latin
America is the extent to which it has helped to reduce the vulnerability
associated with currency and maturity mismatches.
Available evidence suggests that progress made so far in developing
these markets may have helped to reduce currency mismatches in the region.
This is clearly the case if one takes into account the above-mentioned shift
away from dollar-indexed liabilities in the public sector. In addition, currency
mismatches have declined across the region at the aggregate level. One
frequently used measure of currency mismatch is the share of foreign currency
debt in total debt divided by the ratio of exports to GDP.
10
As shown in
Graph 5, in 1997 this ratio was well over 1 in all of the largest countries except
Chile (ie all were above the 45 degree line). By 2005, the ratio had been
significantly reduced across the region. Dollarisation ratios, as measured by
the percentage share of dollar deposits in total deposits in the banking system,
have also declined. This has been particularly evident in Peru, where the ratio
fell from 77% in 1999 to 62% in 2005. Firm-level studies also indicate that there
has been a reduction in currency mismatches in the region at the corporate
level. For instance, Bleakey and Cowan (2005) find that firms now tend to
match the currency composition of their debts with their income flows.
Despite these positive developments, the shift from external to domestic
debt may have replaced the risk resulting from currency mismatches with that
arising from maturity mismatches. The economic environment has improved
but investors in some countries remain reluctant to commit their funds to local
currency obligations at fixed rates for long periods of time. The resulting
predominance of short-term, floating rate and inflation-indexed securities, as
shown in Graphs 1 and 2, could expose the regions governments to a
significant degree of refinancing risk should domestic or global financial
conditions deteriorate. This is also true of the corporate sector, where little
progress has been made in reducing maturity mismatches. For instance, firm-
level data compiled by Kamil (2004) show that the share of long-term liabilities
in total liabilities has fallen in the region since the mid-1990s.







10
This indicator takes into account not only the impact of exchange rates on the value of assets
and liabilities but also the currency denomination of income flows; see Goldstein and Turner
(2004).
but they may
have amplified
maturity
mismatches
Domestic bond
markets have
helped reduce
currency
mismatches




62 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006
Secondary market liquidity
The low level of secondary market trading is a concern since active markets
are an essential prerequisite for the cost-effective taking or unwinding of
positions. Poor liquidity or a liquidity breakdown under stress can induce large
changes in market prices and volatility.
11
Furthermore, liquid financial markets
are necessary for the functioning of modern risk management systems, which
rely on the derivation of accurate benchmark rates for the pricing of portfolios
and the smooth functioning of markets for the frequent rebalancing of positions.
Limited depth and liquidity at the longer end of local yield curves can also lower
the accuracy of the price information derived from those yield curves. For
instance, movements in the yield curve may be difficult to interpret because, in
addition to macroeconomic factors, the pricing of longer-term bonds can be
influenced by liquidity and other premia.
12

Market liquidity can be related to a number of factors. The size of a bond
market and its individual issues is usually seen as a determinant of its depth
and liquidity. McCauley and Remolona (2000) estimate the rough size
threshold for a deep and liquid bond market to be $100 billion. In the region,
only Brazil and Mexico exceed that threshold. However, as shown in Table 2,
Colombia has managed to develop a relatively liquid market despite the small
size of its government bond market.

11
In fact, several countries in the region have already shown some vulnerability during periods
of stress. Good examples are Brazil in 2001 and 2002, and Colombia in 2002, where financial
turmoil led to a drying-up of market liquidity in government paper. In Colombia, the
government was unable to issue bonds in the second half of 2002 in what is referred to by
locals as the TES mini-crisis.
12
In economies with a history of high inflation and/or persistent fiscal imbalances, the variation
in the risk premium can be so large and difficult to disentangle as to blur price signals about
real economic activity and macroeconomic policy. The possibility of large but low-probability
adverse events can also add to the risk premium.
Currency mismatches
1997 2005
Brazil
Chile
Mexico
Peru
Venezuela
Colombia
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
F
o
r
e
i
g
n

c
u
r
r
e
n
c
y

d
e
b
t

/

t
o
t
a
l

d
e
b
t
Exports/GDP
Brazil
Chile
Mexico
Peru
Venezuela
Colombia
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
F
o
r
e
i
g
n

c
u
r
r
e
n
c
y

d
e
b
t

/

t
o
t
a
l

d
e
b
t
Exports/GDP

Source: BIS calculations. Graph 5
The size of markets
has a bearing on
liquidity



BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006 63
What is more, the type of securities traded in a market can have a bearing
on market liquidity. In general, indexed securities tend to be held until maturity
and are therefore less actively traded and liquid than money market
instruments or straight fixed rate bonds. This is illustrated by the wider bid-ask
spread for inflation-linked securities. The availability of a wide array of
instruments can also prevent the build-up of a sufficiently large stock of
homogeneous securities for active trading. In Brazil, for example, there are
various types of inflation-indexed securities, while in Mexico fixed rate
securities are issued by a number of public sector borrowers. A consolidation in
the offering of government securities, in terms of either the instruments
themselves or their issuing entities, would probably do much to improve
liquidity.
Equally important is the breadth of the investor base. The shift to privately
funded pension systems in the region has boosted institutional demand for
local securities but the investor base remains narrow.
13
For instance, the
mutual fund industry is underdeveloped (the main exception being in Brazil),
insurance companies tend to be small, and the local hedge fund industry is
practically non-existent. In some countries, such as Chile, pension funds have
created a virtual monopsony in securities markets. Furthermore, foreign
investors still have a limited presence in most domestic markets owing to the
prevalence of capital controls, which remain in place in Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia and Venezuela. Trading is also limited by various regulatory
restrictions or taxes on interest rate payments, capital gains or
transactions.
14
The strong international demand for the global issues in local
currencies launched by Brazil and Colombia clearly captured the preference of
investors for securities that are not affected by such impediments (Tovar
(2005)). In Mexico, the recent vibrancy of domestic markets has been partly
related to the unfettered access by foreign investors to the domestic bond
market.
Concluding remarks
Latin American economies have made significant progress in developing their
domestic bond markets. However, there are still a number of challenges. The
most pressing are the need to reduce the vulnerability of debt structures to
refinancing risk and to increase secondary market liquidity. Moreover, the
extent to which such markets constitute a dependable source of funding for
these economies remains to be tested. Although the region appears at this time

13
Institutional investment has played a limited role in most countries. In Chile, assets held by
pension funds rose gradually from the early 1970s to reach about 70% of GDP in 2004.
However, similar holdings in other countries are much lower, ranging from 6% of GDP in
Mexico to 14% of GDP in Argentina (Crabbe (2005)).
14
In Brazil, foreign investors must register their purchases of securities with the Brazilian
securities regulator and the central bank and nominate a legal representative that is required
to monitor the fiscal status of their transactions. They are also subject to at least two
transaction taxes (an additional 15% withholding tax on capital gains was removed in
February 2006). In Colombia, foreign investors can only purchase domestic securities through
an investment trust and a withholding tax varying with the maturity of the securities is levied.
as do the array
of existing
instruments
and the size of
the investor base




64 BIS Quarterly Review, J une 2006
to be less vulnerable to financial shocks, less auspicious market conditions
could expose incipient domestic bond markets to additional, unforeseen
pressures. In this respect, policymakers should encourage the further
development of such markets.

References
Bank for International Settlements (2005): Derivatives markets, BIS Quarterly
Review, December, pp 4353.
Bayliss, J (2004): Emerging markets external debt as an asset class,
J PMorgan Emerging Markets Research.
Bleakey, H and K Cowan (2005): Corporate dollar debt and devaluations: much
ado about nothing?, mimeo.
Crabbe, C (2005): A quarter century of pension reform in Latin America;
lessons learned and next steps, Inter-American Development Bank.
Giacomelli, D and F Pianetti (2005): Expanding the efficient frontier, J PMorgan
Emerging Markets Research.
Goldstein, M and P Turner (2004): Controlling currency mismatches in
emerging markets, Institute for International Economics, Washington DC.
J eanneau, S and C Prez Verdia (2005): Reducing financial vulnerability: the
development of the domestic government bond market in Mexico, BIS
Quarterly Review, December, pp 95107.
J iang, G and R McCauley (2004): Asian local currency bond markets, BIS
Quarterly Review, J une, pp 6779.
Kamil, H (2004): A new database on the currency composition and maturity
structure of firms balance sheets in Latin America, 19902002, Inter-American
Development Bank, mimeo.
Mathieson, D, J Roldos, R Ramaswamy and A Ilyina (2004): Emerging local
securities and derivatives markets, World Economic and Financial Surveys,
International Monetary Fund, Washington DC.
McCauley, R and E Remolona (2000): Size and liquidity of government bond
markets, BIS Quarterly Review, November, pp 5260.
Sack, B and R Elsasser (2004): Treasury inflation-indexed debt: a review of
the US experience, FRBNY Economic Policy Review, May, pp 3763.
Tovar, C (2005): International government debt denominated in local currency:
recent developments in Latin America, BIS Quarterly Review, December,
pp 10918.
Wooldridge, P, D Domanski and A Cobau (2003): Changing links between
mature and emerging financial markets, BIS Quarterly Review, September,
pp 4554.